Monkeys, Cats & Swords – A Look at Card Value

This article is geared a little more towards the less experienced Magic player or deck builder. There is some useful info for all types of players but the main intention is to help the abilities of the less skilled players flourish and grow. If you play and feel like your win to loss ratio is a bit unbalanced in the opponent’s favor, you may be able to gain some good tips in this article.

Me and my little sack are about to school you on some value

Value. It’s an important part of Magic. Knowing the value of cards leads to stronger and more consistant decks and ultimately winning more games. This is true for all formats. Many players that are newer and less familiar with Magic don’t understand value and end up building decks that have cards that they think are strong taking no actual value into consideration. This can lead to more losses and less desire to play the game. That’s not good. Magic is a great game and it sucks to see people discouraged from playing due to their inability to win as consistantly as they’d like. The intent of this article is to give the less experienced players some examples of card value with a common and fairly budget deck theme that makes very good use of value. Zoo.

So what’s zoo? Well, think about what you find in a zoo. Animals and Zoologists. Actually, Zoologist is a pretty bad example of card value and would never be found in a good zoo deck. Zoo is basically a bunch of good value creatures and spells. Lots of good value creatures happen to be animals. Take Kird Ape for example. He’s a 1/1 for 1 red Ape but is more often a 2/3 for 1 mana. As a rough outline that I’ve seen, 1 mana will usually equal 1 power or 1 base ability like flying or trample on a creature. So a creature like Phantom Monster costing 4 mana is a 3/3 with flying. Not too unheard of. It’s a solid creature but nothing too wacky. Kird Ape gaining an additional 1 power and 2 toughness is a very good bang for your buck. You get double what you’re paying for! That’s one bitchin’ monkey.
Zoo also plays very efficient removal. Since zoo is generally going to play high value, low mana creatures, they need a way to clear a way for the creatures to get through. If for some reason you were stuck at late game and had no removal for threats and the opponent dropped a Primeval Titan you would pretty much be screwed. Zoo will generally have answers for threats of all types at very high value. Cards that I have included in my list and that are often included in other zoo lists are Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares. These cards need no introduction. They get the job done better and more efficiently than any other cards in those slots. Both spells being one mana instants can keep an opponent guessing at any point in the game. If you have 1 card in your hand and 1 mana open, you could easily be holding either of those spells.

So let’s do some comparisons to really explain why a card like Lightning Bolt is so much better than a similar counterpart. To give an idea of how overpowered Lightning Bolt is, Shock used to be played in standard. Shock is strictly worse than Lightning Bolt as a 1 mana instant for 2 damage. Incinerate is a 2 mana spell that does 3 damage. Yet another good card but still holds no candle to the bolt. Shard Volley and Sonic Seizure were more fair versions of Lightning Bolt that were strictly worse. Rift Bolt was a very limited comparable version of Lightning Bolt that still was nowhere near as powerful as Lightning Bolt outside of storm decks. As you can see, the mana to damage ratio is weighted strongly in the favor of Lightning Bolt. You can even go as far as to compare Lightning Bolt to other non-burn spells that can do a similar job. Take Doom Blade for instance. In many scenarios, Lightning Bolt can do the job of killing creatures even better than Doom Blade. It can kill black creatures and it costs less mana which leaves an additional mana available for other spells. It could be the difference from playing a Woolly Thoctar or a Watchwolf to leave mana available for your removal.

If I saw this in real life I'd punch it in the face.

Value can also be interpreted in the amount of things a single card can do. Take Mulldrifter for instance. That fish bird thing is a good example of card value. It gives you options. You can evoke for a Divination or you can just cast it for a 2/2 flyer with a Divination attached to it that can potentially hit for some damage or prevent you from taking some damage. If you compare that to something like a Wind Drake (with the tempest artwork), Mulldrifter is better value even though it costs more mana for the same sized creature because of the options and card draw. Drawing cards is always good. Well, maybe not as much if your opponent has a few Underworld Dreams out, but generally drawing more cards puts you in a better position than the opponent because you get to see a higher percentage of your deck. So having a Wind Drake on turn 3 with no extra cards compared to one on turn 5 with 2 extra cards is a pretty big difference.

I had some bad pork last night and now I got the mud butt.

Another thing to consider about value is the speed that a card can get the job it needs to do done. For instance, an Incinerate is much better than a Volcanic Hammer because it’s an instant and not a sorcery. You’re now opened to more options and options equal value. Speed is a thing to consider when looking at that creature that you think has a cool ability and will do awesome things for you. Take Havengul Runebinder. This card seems pretty cool when you read what it does. He gets rid of a dead creature that was never going to come back anyway and gives you a 3/3 and also pumps up all of your other zombies. That’s a whole lot of stuff that seems like it will make you win the game. No…You’re probably not going to win the game if you play this guy. But why not? He’s so awesome! By the time you’ve used the creature’s ability you’ve given the opponent a full turn to come up with an answer to a measly 2/2 that you just spent 4 mana on. It enters the battlefield and does nothing. He’s just like ,”Sup niggas? I’m gonna do some cool shit but….I gotta wait until tomorrow cause I got this tummy ache right now.” Not to mention that by the time you’ve used his ability you’ve spent 7 total mana to get a 2/2 and a 3/3 and maybe pump up a zombie or two in the process. The only way for this card to be good is for it to stay on the battlefield for as long as possible. Now let’s compare Havengul Runebinder to another 4 mana creature, Bloodbraid Elf. Bloodbraid comes out ready to fuckin rock and she brings some friends to the party. A hasty 3 damage that brings along a free spell is beast. She does work as soon as she comes out unlike that little wussy wizard. Bloodbraid has a much better face value than Runebinder because it does its job no matter what as long as it’s cast unlike Runebinder.

So you know that the differences of mana cost, spell speed, options and overall power are all to be taken into consideration when trying to figure out the value of a card. Now let’s get to the deck that lead to this article. This may not be the best Zoo deck that there is, but it has many of the aforementioned principals and is still very strong. The deck was made from cards that I already had. Nothing was bought and a few of the more expensive cards were proxied just for gets and shiggles. The land base is not very good but the meat of the deck is still very strong.

Take some time to mouse over each creature and spell and see if you can assess the value of them. Notice the options that each card offers. Pay attention to the mana costs. This is a little more midrangey than some other zoo decks but the idea is still the same, big spells for little mana.

So some notable interactions of the deck. First we have the obvious powerful, high value interaction of Stoneforge Mystic and the equipment that it can seek. It also has Bloodbraid Elf and the 30 cards that it can cascade into. Naya Charm, though generally bad to cascade into, can be that clutch card to win the game due to its versatility. Browbeat is a total beating. Since your spells are so strong and efficient, you’re generally going to hit the opponent for 5 damage with 1 spell. They don’t want you to get 3 cards that will end up doing even more damage than the Browbeat. The cats in the deck, Loam Lion and Wild Nacatl, give a high power and toughness to mana cost ratio. Elspeth, Knight-Errant can put a creature out every turn giving protection to herself and some virtual card advantage. Her buff ability and ultimate are nothing to shake a stick at either. The removal is all super strong as well. Lightning Helix is one of my favorites in the deck. 1 card = 3 damage and 3 life. It’s a potential 6 life spread between you and your opponent if you burn to the face. Not bad for 2 mana. Flames, Ajani and O-Ring are all there just because they can be. This deck has been taken from by other decks that I have built so it just takes what it can get these days.

Hopefully you’ve gained a Flash of Insight about card value. Take some time to look through some of your decks and assess the value of the cards in them. I bet you’ll probably find some spots that would be better filled by some more efficient, higher value cards that can bring up your win to loss ratio. If you have any questions about anything Magic related or just care to hear my opinion on cards etc. feel free to leave a comment and I’ll get back to you when I can. As always, have fun playing Magic and don’t forget to tell your opponent to eat it when you’re using less mana to get more done. ;P